What a Goose Can Teach Us About Change

Some time ago, I posted a story of a goose joining a goat herd and how it had become accepted and integrated within it. The goose has now been part of the goat herd for over a year and continues to waddle along inline with the goats as the herd parades single file across the pasture. No doubt the burro and llama also protect the goose from predators, just as they do the goats.
I began wondering why the goose remains in this unusual situation. This is, after all, unnatural as geese flock with other geese. Wouldn’t it prefer to be among a gaggle of its own kind? Flocks of geese have flown overhead the goose and a large flock of geese resides in Lady Bird Park, not more than five miles away as the goose flies. Despite these opportunities to be more goose-like, this goat-loving goose seems perfectly contented to stay a member of its mixed herd. I am aware that if a burro or llama is raised within a goat herd that it develops protective tendencies for the herd and perhaps in a similar way a young goose becomes comfortable with a herd of goats or cattle. I have also seen an example of the latter when two baby geese were raised on a cattle ranch and later joined the cattle herd..

Recently I was visiting with a friend who has his doctorate in counseling psychology and who did his dissertation on the difficulty in making life changes. I shared this unusual goat story with him. He reminded me that we grow up in our specific environments and tend to accept in a unquestioning manner the opinions of our parents and other significant individuals in our lives. As youth we accept these opinions as absolute truths. Later in life when confronted with facts to the contrary, most folks cannot fully embrace the new information enough to change their long held opinions. Instead they often do mental gymnastics in order to cling to their own outmoded views. Change is hard and its threatening.

Why is this? Well according to my friend, Doctor Jim Spruiell who has 50 years of psychotherapy experience, when we venture too far from our traditional comfort zones, we lose the feeling of safety. We might wish to change, say quit smoking or change our attitudes or ideas, or favorite sports team, religion, or even political party but such things are foreign to our natures and end up threatening our comfort zone. The subconscious has a major impact on our rational behavior even when change may be the logical course of action.

How does this relate to our one unusual goose? While I have no idea how the goose came to find itself among the herd of goats, it apparently has adapted and the herd has fully accepted it. This has become the expected norm for this goose. The inability to break this pattern would call for a leap of faith on the part of the goose and would take it away from its current protected state.

To a degree aren’t we all tribal in this way? We are comfortable within our belief systems, social crowd, political party, fan club, and interest groups. To break out from these comfortable norms creates apprehension and anxiety. These long held emotional roots run deep. While a few people are confident enough or adaptable enough to change their lives based on new facts perhaps gained through advanced education and deep thought, most of us are not. Oftentimes elaborate rationalizations develop for maintaining old beliefs despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

Maybe this lone goose is not so unusual after all.

“Hey, you seen that member of the herd that waddles?”

To end on a wistful note, wouldn’t it be wonderful if we humans could learn to accept the differences of others. What if we entered a period in our lives which was foreign to us but did so with love and compassion for others, ignoring the differences. This would give rise to overall justice for us and others in our world.

> tomhuttonmd posted: ” Some time ago, I posted a story of a goose joining a > goat herd and how it had become accepted and integrated within it. The > goose has now been part of the goat herd for over a year and continues to > waddle along inline with the goats as the herd parad” >